Law
Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act
Required Medicare-participating hospitals with emergency departments to provide screening and stabilizing treatment for emergency medical conditions, including active labor, regardless of ability to pay.
Year
1986
Impact
Positive
Status
Active
Party
Republican Party
Era
Post Civil Rights Era
Impact Context
Strengthened the right to emergency care and reduced the formal ability of hospitals to refuse urgent patients, which has been especially consequential for low-income Black patients and pregnant Black women navigating unequal healthcare systems.
What This Policy Did
Strengthened the right to emergency care and reduced the formal ability of hospitals to refuse urgent patients, which has been especially consequential for low-income Black patients and pregnant Black women navigating unequal healthcare systems.
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Sources
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services • Government
CMS overview of EMTALA and the obligations it imposes on Medicare-participating hospitals.